The Door of Time
by Priestess Adularia
Summary: Seth didn't know what he was doing when he said those words. But the moment he did, two severely injured bodies appeared. One was that of the King of Thieves, one of a boy named Ryou Bakura. AtemuAkefia SethBakura SetoYami MalikRyou JouYugi


Priestess Adularia: I don't know where I got the idea for this. I was just in desperate need to write something new to make up for all my fanfictions being gone due to me having to create a third profile.  
The pairings, for future reference, are Atemu/Akefia (Pharaoh Yami/Thief Bakura), Seth/Bakura, Kaiba/Yami, and Malik/Ryou. I may have Jou/Yugi later on, and maybe more.  
Now, this first chapter stinks a bit, but there's a reason. It's 3:41 AM.

«§Ж§»

The Pharaoh Atemu glared at his sundial.

Being Pharaoh, he had to meditate for four hours every day, but meditating required clearing his mind. And it had been months since he had actually been able to clear his mind.

Actually, he had always had problems clearing his mind, what with all the responsibilities stacked on his shoulders, but it wasn't until recently that he had had no ideas how to deal with these responsibilities.

Actually, it was one that he didn't know how to deal with.

Atemu had ascended the throne when he was only thirteen, his only sibling dead and his father's wives all dead as well. Because of this, he had never married. Legally, the Pharaoh married his sister, but Atemu and his brother had been the only ones to survive past the age of three—and his brother only ruled for two months before being poisoned.

Because of this, Atemu's reign had started out doomed, because he could not have an heir, and because no one expected him to survive. He had survived the last three years by working extremely hard and relying heavily on his Priests, and his people now loved him as much as they had loved his father. And other than the heir problem, he

But recently, a new threat had appeared to the kingdom. His name was Akefia, though most people referred to him as 'Touzoku Ou' or 'Thief.' He was a thief, and he was very arrogant about his skills. For good reason. He was powerful. And—for some reason no one knew yet—he had something against Atemu and his father, the late Pharaoh Akunamukanon.

Usually, their army would take care of him. Akefia had went right up to the palace and challenged him and his Priests to a duel. He had beaten Seth. He had beaten Mahaado, and taken his Item. He had beaten Akunadin. He had come within a hair of beating all seven of them combined, including Atemu. And Atemu was beginning to wonder—if, by some miracle, his Priests never came to help him, would Akefia have killed him by now?

Usually, he didn't have time to mull over such disturbing questions. Meditation time was different. Then all he could think about was Akefia, and the growing fear that—in a fair fight with no Priests involved—Akefia would win.

«§Ж§»

"So, what's the latest bad news?" asked Atemu, after all the "Ridiculous Rituals of Royal Respect," as he called them, had been completed, and he had sat on his throne and faced his Priests.

There had been six of them. Five Priests and one Priestess. Mahaado was dead now, and his Item belonged to the enemy.

Shimon, a previous High Priest and the person who had essentially raised Atemu, was training Mahaado's apprentice Mana to become the next High Priestess. But Mana was young and sprightly and much too easygoing, and unless they could defeat Akefia—which seemed more and more unlikely with every passing moment—she would have no Millennium Item.

"Well, we and some lesser Priests in assorted temples have begun to feel strange magical vibrations over the last several hours, all emanating from the same place."

"Where from?" asked Atemu, not really concerned. Egyptians played with magic all the time, and at least twice a day one of his Priests sensed strange magic rippling about. It rarely meant anything.

"Kuru Eruna."

Later, Atemu would feel as if Seth's uttering those two words had been what opened the door of time. Later, he would feel that the very name of that accursed place had triggered the following events. Later, he would wonder why he used to believe anything could be coincidental. But later, their lives would have been changed forever.

Later, he would wonder why, a moment after Seth answered the question, the door to the Great Hall swung open, and two severely injured bodies—bodies with the same pale hair and odd golden necklaces—fell to the ground.


End file.
